Delivery
by Patricia de Lioncourt
Summary: Vampire Hunter D has his most difficult bounty yet...taking care of a six month old child across the Frontier!
1. Chapter One

A/N- Okay, so I know have another D chapter fic going…to be honest, folks, it's shocking that this is only the second chapter fic I have in this section. If you check out my profile and do some scrolling, you'll notice that I have numerous fics going in numerous sections. Welcome to my world. Anyhow, I hope that everyone will enjoy this one…I'm hoping that it won't be as long as my other chaptered D story is going to be…

Disclaimer- I don't own Vampire Hunter D. It belongs to Hideyuki Kikuchi and Urban Vision. This applies to all chapters.

* * *

Chapter One

Only someone with a most desperate cause would flee out into the Frontier at night. Indeed, this woman seemed just so desperate. She ran as fast as possible—careful of her footing—hugging a bundle close to her chest as if it were the most precious thing in the world. This was a simple woman. Her cotton dress, darned in many places but especially at the knees, blew around her in the small evening breeze, showing the shape of her stout legs. She was not a big woman at the waist, but her stomach still carried the weight given to her by bearing a child. She was middle-aged, gray wisps in her brown hair currently flying free of its hastily pulled-back bun.

She tripped, but caught herself quickly, gasping out in fear and shock. She could not fall. She must not hurt her precious bundle of cottony pale blankets. She glanced worriedly behind looking for any signs of those who had been chasing her—those she had counted as friends not so long ago. Seeing none, but thinking that she heard voices, she quickened her pace towards the town exit.

Condemned for something she had never thought was evil, this practitioner of midwifery felt tears slide down her cheeks. She could see the end of the town she had thought she could make her home come into view. She was at the fastest she felt it was safe for her to move. After all, her bundle…

She saw the figures at the town's limits before she reached them. Behind her, she heard those that were chasing her coming closer. She stopped and released a sound somewhere between a gasp and a dry sob. She turned so that the two groups of pursuers closing in on her—the figures at the edge of town and those coming up behind her—were on her left and right sides. She was backing away as they formed a semicircle in front of her. She felt herself bump up against something and looked back at it. An empty water trough for its adjoining tavern's visitors to hitch their horses to blocked her path. Throwing skyward a quick prayer, she placed her bundle inside the trough, shushing it once.

When she looked back, the figures—their faces now clearly visible—were upon her. Men, all citizens of the town and all members of the town's vigilante squad, made up the two groups that had merged to capture her.

"Please, leave me alone! I'll leave, I swear!" she pleaded.

The burliest of the men stepped forward. His hair was hacked short and the same color of the toothpick he was currently chewing on. He grinned.

"Sorry, Mrs. Dawes. You see, it's this town's policy to kill any and all witches that crosses our path. We see it as a charity to the other villages," he drawled with an old country accent hanging all over his words.

Suddenly, unfurled from his beefy hand was a whip. It fell right to the dusty road on which they stood with a dull thud and a small cloud of dirt. It was soon followed by those of other men. The woman—Mrs. Dawes—began to cry. The men laughed.

"And, once we're done killin' you, we'll find that baby of yours and put it out of its misery. Stop a witch before it starts."

"Yeah," quipped one of the other men in the squad, "we saw you run out with the kid. Whatcha do with it?"

Mrs. Dawes set her jaw, her tears stopping instantly.

"Leave my baby out of this! Don't you touch her!" she raged at them.

Their laughter turned to menacing growls. Dawes thanked God that her child had not made a noise yet. They raised their hands, about to strike at her with the whips. She cast her eyes about quickly, looking for someone—anyone—that could help her. And in the distance, a black shape darker than the surrounding night was coming slowly into town.

"Help me, please!" she shouted as the vigilante squad's whips came down.

It was an odd sensation to feel your own blood spray from your body. She knew that they had severed several of her major arteries. She was dead, and she knew it. Her body hit the dusty ground and her wounds stung with the dirt that was sticking to them. She heard slicing noises seconds after and heard several bodies hit the ground around her. Slowly, painfully, she forced herself onto her back, looking up.

Kneeling over her was the most beautiful man she had ever seen. His long black hair fell slightly over his shoulder as he looked down at her. His face was expressionless as he placed his left hand upon her forehead.

"You're dying," the man said simply, sounding as emotionless as he looked.

She tried to smile. If she had to die, at least she got to see something beautiful. Then, with a stab to her heart, she thought of her child. She raised her hand weakly, pointing towards the trough.

"Abigail…" she managed to croak around the slashes on her neck.

"Who's Abigail?" the beautiful man asked her.

"My…daugh…ter. In…trough…Please…take…her…to…Michael…in…Korin…th," she struggled.

She was fading and fast, and it hurt to talk. But this was the most important thing in her life. She had to keep her Abby safe. By the look of this man, he was most likely a vampire hunter. Only a hunter could take Abby to Mrs. Dawes's husband across the Frontier in Korinth.

"He'll," she struggled, knowing her time was upon her. But she had to make it worth this hunter's while, "…pay."

With a final, rasping gasp, she felt her eyes close against the world…and against life…

…………………

D stood, casting an eye over to the trough. His dhampire senses told him that another life was indeed lying inside it. He approached it and gazed down at the sleeping form of an infant girl, no older than six months at least, sleeping peacefully.

"So," a voice from D's left hand said, with a dark laugh, "what do you know about kids, D?"

* * *

End Notes: Okay, so here's the first chapter of D's most difficult adventure yet (maybe, haha). Please review!


	2. Chapter Two

A/N- So sorry for the one chapter just floating in space. I'm trying desperately to finish off some of my older fics, and this one just sort of got left behind. This one is still in the outlining processes. However, it was actually a reviewer that gave me the idea for this chapter. So, much thanks, p. s. Pancake, this one's for you!

* * *

Chapter Two

**Fifteen Minutes Earlier…**

He was pale and unearthly beautiful. His ebony black hair and traveler's cloak were caught in the gentle evening breeze—the only thing gentle on the Frontier at night—causing them to fan out about his equally dark form. His cyborg stallion seemed to come from the night itself as it slowly trotted towards the desolate Frontier town before this pale rider. In fact, the rider seemed as if someone had desired to make death beautiful, resulting in this being.

His wide-brimmed hat—also black—was pulled down over his eyes, and this rider—whose aura screamed nothing but "death" and "unnatural"—looked as if he were sleeping. His body swayed in time with the slow gait of his horse, and it seemed as if nothing in the entire world could disturb him. That was until, upon nearing the town, he heard the calls and shrieks of several people. A hoarse voice from somewhere near the vicinity of his left hand huffed.

"Whaddya suppose that is?" his Left Hand asked.

Silence was the appendage's only response. Sighing, he tried again.

"D, do you think that's this town's Vigilante Committee? That could spell trouble for us!" Left Hand protested. "Maybe we ought to go around, instead of through."

But the rider known as D made no acknowledgment of his Left Hand's statement. So, horse and rider continued into the small, Frontier town.

D came upon the source of the commotion just in time to see several brutish men slash a woman to death. As her body hit the ground, blood pouring out of the wounds left by the men's weapons, D dismounted from his horse. The cyborg was well-trained enough to instinctually move out of harm's way. The men whirled on D, seeing him for what he was—a dhampire—immediately. They raised their weapons to strike him, but D was too fast for them. In a flash of black and silver, D had drawn his weapon and sliced the lot of them down. It was then, and only then, did D notice that the woman's life had yet to expire.

And, moments later, he had been contracted to carry the now dead woman's infant child across the Frontier. Once he had taken the child from the trough, his Left Hand scoffed again.

"Seriously, D. You know less about kids than you do about women's emotions!" the parasite said with a laugh.

D gave no response, instead moving, while juggling the child easily in the nook of one arm, to hitch his horse to the hitching post. With quick, even steps, D made his way inside the town's nearby inn. The man at the inn's front desk looked up at him with sleepy eyes at first. However, the middle aged, brown haired man quickly snapped to attention once he caught sight of the vampire hunter. D slid several gold coins onto the rough, wooden countertop in front of the man.

"One room for a night, and all the necessary supplies for a child this age for one month," D said, his voice as even as his walk, as he gently showed the man the child in his arms.

The man blinked his squinty, black eyes and nodded.

"Any-anything else, sir?" he asked, his voice shaky.

"I need several field pack refills. That's it," D said.

The man nodded quickly as he handed D his room key. He then directed him that the room was upstairs, and two doors on the right. D gave the man no further acknowledgement as he made his way into his room.

The key slid easily into its lock as D twisted the dirty gold doorknob and pushed his way inside. The room was nothing grand. A simple, double bed with plain linens lay up against the right wall. A desk rested against the opposite wall directly across from the bed, and a single light hung in the center of the room. D crossed the room to its single window and drew its thin curtains closed. He left the light in the center of the room untouched. Just as he was about to take a seat at the desk's chair, a knock came at his room's door.

He answered it to find the man from downstairs, an apologetic, nervous grin on his face.

"Sorry to disturb you, but… I found that we had this bassinet downstairs, and I thought you could make use of it tonight," he said, wheeling a white baby's bassinet into view.

D rolled it within the room with his free arm. Once it was safely behind him, he slipped the man another gold coin.

"Thank you," the dhampire said just before shutting the door.

He turned and placed the baby—Abigail—safely within the bassinet. Abigail had not yet awoken from the night's ordeals. She continued to sleep just as peacefully as she might have in the presence of her mother. D finally took his seat at the desk, and removed his hat, resting it on the footboard of the bed.

"Supplies for a month?" his Left Hand cackled. "That child will probably burn right through those! Or it'll just weigh us down."

"Then I'll get more," D replied in his smooth, monotone voice.

Left Hand scoffed. "Okay, D, seriously. What the hell do you think you're doing? A child? We can't, _cannot_, carry a six month old kid across the Frontier with us. It's just not gonna work."

"This was the job I was contracted to do," D replied.

"Oh, don't give me that crap. No money's been exchanged yet. You can still bow out. You know what I think? I think you ought to leave this baby on some nice woman's doorstep, and be done with it."

At this, D stood, moving to look down upon the sleeping infant. Left Hand chuckled under his breath.

"I know you, dhampire. You're considering it. You know it's the right thing to do. You don't know jack crap about how to take care of a child," he said pompously.

In her sleep, Abigail yawned and wiggled her little body. Then, her face positioned where it looked as if she was staring right at D—although her eyes were still closed and the child was still quite asleep—she smiled. It was a tiny little thing, pulling her thin lips barely upward… but it was undeniably a smile. At that, D moved away from the bassinet and sat down upon the bed, moving his body so that his back was leaning up against the headboard.

"We'll leave in the morning for the town of Korinth," he said, closing his eyes.

"Damn adorable babies," Left Hand muttered to himself. To D, he added, "I hope you know what you're getting into."

* * *

End Notes: Okay, just a short little chapter, but I hope all of you liked it. I, myself, was quite pleased with the way this turned out. Now, I can't promise any sort of timeline on the updating… but just know that I won't abandon this. If it's still up, I'm still working on it. Also, since I read the Vampire Hunter D novels, I tend to draw some stuff from them. But don't worry, it's nothing that'll disturb the reading of someone who's never touched one. Please review!


End file.
